Stephen Smith, the New York reporter who made a name for himself with his anti-NIMBYism, his fixation on New York's out-of-control transportation costs and his unusually forthright Twitter feed, is going into real estate.Smith has taken a job with Ben Thypin, the founder of Progress Real Estate Partners.Thypin left his job at Real Capital Analytics, a real estate analysis firm, earlier this year.Smith, who came on in April, is the first of several hires Thypin plans to make as he expands the company, which he said will "use data to invest in commercial real estate" in the New York region.

The two met on Twitter. And then in real life, during a tour of Manhattan's west side.“I’ve been following @marketurbanism for years,” said Thypin, referring to one of Smith’s Twitter handles. “And I saw that there was all this talent in this Twitter account, and then realized he was a journalist, and then thought, 'Wow, why is he a journalist when he could be doing a lot more with his passion and get paid more for it?'"

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.